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Fortune buys place at the table as big players prepare to bid for China Gas

Leo Lewis

February 21 2012, 12:01am, The Times

Fortune Oil is listed on the London stock exchangeTimes photographer, Ben Gurr

A London-listed energy group has spent two months in a frenzy of stake-building to secure itself a position at the heart of a $2.2 billion hostile takeover tussle in Hong Kong.

One investor told The Times that the presence of a Fortune Oil joint venture among the top shareholders in the Hong Kong-listed China Gas Holdings made it impossible to predict who might seize control of the energy giant.

Control of China Gas, and its substantial portfolio of projects across China, is seen as the key to building a dominant position in a market many believe to be on the edge of spectacular growth.

Sources close to Fortune said that the industry connections of the group’s founder Daniel Chiu meant that there was “definitely more…